The fastest rising name for girls: Briella, which jumped 394 spots, to No. 497. Briella Calafiore stars in "Jerseylicious," a reality TV show about battling stylists at a beauty salon in Green Brook, N.J. She's also in a spinoff called "Glam Fairy."

Brantley was the fastest rising name for boys, jumping 416 spots to No. 320. Brantley Gilbert is a singer who had a No. 1 country hit called "Country Must Be Country Wide."

Pop culture, baby.

... Elvis returned to the list at No. 904, after dropping off for a year. When Elvis dropped off the in 2010, it ended a run that had started in 1955.

Pop culture.

Here's the Social Security Administrations chart showing the changes from last year to this year. You can do a search there too. I checked my own name, which is just about to fall off the list, at 996. It was #493 in 2000, and it's dropped almost steadily since then. People in the "Ann" zone are going with Anna, which is #38. Ana, Anne, and Annie are all more popular than Ann.

I've been struggling to come up with boy's names that are both not weird and not overly common. It's fairly easy for girl's names, but very difficult for boys.

Right now, I'm entertaining: Clark, Riley, and Dalton, but I'm still looking really hard. I won't do Michael or Jacob or Christopher (or, I guess now, Mason, though I'd never have thought of that one), because I don't want the kid to be one of multitudes, but I also don't want anything that folks can't pronounce or spell or immediately identify as a name (Brantley?), or that people immediately associate with only one thing or person (i.e., Elvis).

Right now, I'm entertaining: Clark, Riley, and Dalton, but I'm still looking really hard. I won't do Michael or Jacob or Christopher (or, I guess now, Mason, though I'd never have thought of that one), because I don't want the kid to be one of multitudes, but I also don't want anything that folks can't pronounce or spell or immediately identify as a name (Brantley?), or that people immediately associate with only one thing or person (i.e., Elvis).

How about something like Titus, Granville, Severian, or Havergal? Or what about Pelham? (I would be horrible at naming babies)

Don't know about that one. Likely to think about one of our somewhat periodic posters, though we haven't heard that much recently about his sexual exploits.

Nothing against the poster who has or uses that name here, but I think that if I were to name a kid (boy or girl) that, I would keep thinking too much about the images that he has put into my head over the last couple of years.

MadMan: My names was in the teens back when I was born. Alas, ever since I acquired the moniker, its popularity has dropped, to beyond 300 now.

I'd like to think it's not my fault.

My name was in the top 5 the year that I was born, and it's now hovering around 200. Sigh. I looked up all of the other really common girls names from when I was growing up, and they were the same (Jessica, Jennifer, Heather, Stephanie). Weird how that works.

Right now, I'm entertaining: Clark, Riley, and Dalton, but I'm still looking really hard. I won't do Michael or Jacob or Christopher (or, I guess now, Mason, though I'd never have thought of that one), because I don't want the kid to be one of multitudes, but I also don't want anything that folks can't pronounce or spell or immediately identify as a name (Brantley?), or that people immediately associate with only one thing or person (i.e., Elvis).

It seems that androgynous names that blur the distinction between male and female are still popular. I don't know why people would leave others guessing the sex even after hearing the name.

The pop culture influence, though pervasive, reflects superficiality. I bet we start to see little Ritalin, Paxil and Zoloft soon.

And how about App or Avatar or little Download?

I like me some Bible names (particularly Old Testament). Fire and brimstone. But just as you cannot control all the influences on the child's life, you also cannot control the name forever -- kids are going to pick up nicknames along the way anyway.

Later on, the kid might appreciate a name that looks good on letterhead or in print.

One thing about an old name, a kid can look it up and see it means something.

Lyssa said...

I've been struggling to come up with boy's names that are both not weird and not overly common. It's fairly easy for girl's names, but very difficult for boys.

A few from my family - Edward (or Edmond), Alexander, Arthur, Charles, or William.

Try the Old Testament - plenty of good strong men's names. There are also the Apostles' names and those of the Saints (no idea your religious background). And don't forget your ethnic ancestry and your husband's - Old English, Irish, Russian, Greek, or Scandanavian will also have strong choices.

It seems that androgynous names that blur the distinction between male and female are still popular. I don't know why people would leave others guessing the sex even after hearing the name.

One problem there - some names cross over over a period of time. Some of my family names have done so. Always wanted to name a daughter "Meridith". My mother's mother was a Meridith - a family name from Wales. Then, it was a boys' name, and now a girls' name. My last name seems to be moving in the same direction, as are some other family surnames.

Well, my last was probably a bad example. The Welsh apparently swapped names back a forth a bit. And, I shouldn't complain - apparently my first name moved from a Scotch last name or title to where it mostly is today. Just hasn't gone over to the dark side yet.

I love the use of a mothers side maiden name for the boys name (that's where my brother's name came from, and a cousin did the same). I like family names in general, too. If you go back far enough you are sure to find a name you like.

I have a few solid boy names in mind, not too popular, that you might like, Lyssa. Nathaniel, Jefferson, Carson, Cormac and Gabriel. My husband talked me out of Benedict and Linus, two of my favorite saint names, but I thought they would've been lovely as middle names.

As for the "Ann/Anna" thing---I was born in 1983 with the name Anna and I've been correcting people who insist on calling me Ann all my life. Really, people, it's already a pretty short name, there's no need to cut off that one little "a". If it wasn't that, it was people mistaking it for "Amanda" which was the name of at least one other girl in my grade every year---no other Annas. The past year, though, it seems like every other four year old in my neighborhood is named Anna. If I'm at the park with my daughter, I spend half the time resisting the urge to turn around when I hear my name called.

One problem there - some names cross over over a period of time. Some of my family names have done so. Always wanted to name a daughter "Meridith". My mother's mother was a Meridith - a family name from Wales. Then, it was a boys' name, and now a girls' name. My last name seems to be moving in the same direction, as are some other family surnames.

My middle name is Meredith. As is my father's. We have Welsh ancestry.

"Archer" is another pop culture reference: the eponymous foul-mouthed, narcissistic, alcoholic spy from the (wonderful) animated spoof. Not exactly like naming your kid "Dougie" after MacArthur, but hey, it's not your life, after all.

Also:-"Dexter," a serial killer with a conscience-"Axel," a washed-up rocker who refused to show up for his award-"Xander" and "Zander," which combined must mean that Buffy fans are starting to have kids-"Ashton," the man-child who is twice the recipient of sloppy seconds

Among the names in my own family (children and siblings) are Joshua, Cade, Eli, Aaron, John, Paul, Scott, Brent, with Ann, Lori, Chelsea...I couldn't name any of my children after my granparents nor those of my wife; the male name choices were Milton, Wesley, Chester, and Clarence.

I checked my own name, which is just about to fall off the list, at 996.

Names like Ann and Jane always seem to come back. People get tired of naming kids stuff like Cheyenne.

(after all, only man could really own it...)

Schorsch said...

"Archer" is another pop culture reference: the eponymous foul-mouthed, narcissistic, alcoholic spy from the (wonderful) animated spoof. Not exactly like naming your kid "Dougie" after MacArthur, but hey, it's not your life, after all.

I doubt anyone ever called him, "Dougie", but nothing wrong with Douglas.

Carol said...

Ann is a swell name. So are Mary, Theresa, but Martha not so much. Too 50s-ish

Martha was the sister of Mary Magdalene. Hardly 50s-ish, unless you mean the 1850s.

What happens when the girls with -shonda and -quisha names grow up and find out that their names aren't in those "what your name means" books? They'll have to stop publishing those books because they're so discriminatory.

My mom was an indentical twin born in 1915. She was Bertha and her sister Beulah. The doctor named them. Their mother was a Beulah and his sister who died five years before her and looked a lot like my grandmother. He told the family that the twins were another Bertha and Beulah. Just after Krup named the gun used to shell Paris from 75 miles away after his daughter "Big Bertha". Bertha became unpopular. So did Beulah for some reason. Beulah sent her daughter a package with newspaper as filling. Laura reads everything. There was article explaing that Bertha and Beulah had become 2 of the 3 most unpopular names for babies of the female persuasion.

Both my boys have very traditional names that rank very high, but strangely enough, neither of them has been on a team or in a class with a guy who shared his name.

And they have those ordinary names for a reason: both my husband and I have spent a good deal of time over the years explaining how to spell and pronounce our first (and last) names. It gets dull after a while.

Pogo and PaulV, my sister and I were recently discussing that Lil' John vid because we had two great-aunts named Beulah and Bertha. But I had it confused with the Gitarzan vid by Hoolihan and Big Chuck. Any fans? It was the highlight of my week. Every Friday night around 11:30 they'd run old-fashioned horror shows.

Maverick was—maybe still is—a family name. A lawyer named Maverick moved from South Carolina to Texas. He accepted livestock in payment for his services. However he did not brand them and let them roam the range. This allowed him to claim that any unbranded livestock were his. Locals started calling any stray livestock mavericks.

I checked out my names and names of people I know. Names that were common a while back.

When I was a little boy, the name "Jill" was kind of the cute girl name. Gals in high school when I was in elementry, and in college/20s, when I was in Jr High/high school. And my first real girl friend's name was Jill. She was born in 1978. Probably at the end of the Jill era.

Doesn't anyone remember the great Michael J. Fox movie The Secret of My Success? His character was named Brantley Foster. I can't hear the name "Brantley" without thinking of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7n_3JmS49Q&feature=related